If you’ve ever seen those Facebook or YouTube traffic stop videos, where an individual tells a cop they are “traveling” but not driving, then “Sovereign” might be of great interest. Christian Swegal’s feature film debut is crafted to get the audience riled up. Nick Offerman’s performance as an anti-authoritarian who subscribes to the misguided and misinformed Sovereign Citizen belief is a career best for the versatile actor. Jacob Tremblay, now 18 years old, gives his best performance since his childhood debut in “Room.” Swegal’s script serves to both inform the audience of this loose group of anti-government extremists and to deliver an intense thriller based on true events.
The Sovereign Citizen movement attracts people like Jerry Kane (Offerman). An uneducated widower, living in poverty in rural Arkansas. Jerry is the type who reads something online, works out how it can help him escape responsibility, and profits from it. Often, conspiracy theorists, tax protesters, and financial scammers make their loudest protest on highways. At a traffic stop over improper plates, Jerry refuses to present a license or registration, claiming he isn’t driving but rather “traveling, moving personal property from one place to another”. Brainwashing his homeschooled son Joe (Tremblay), they drive city to city, as Jerry preaches and profits from other gullible individuals. Instead of paying the taxes owed on their house, or using earnings for reasonable things, Jerry gambles, buys more guns, backing himself into a violent corner with law enforcement.
It’s the type of drama that gets your blood boiling....
Hypocrisy is on full display for Jerry’s character, as well as the entire philosophy behind the Sovereign Citizen belief. It’s the type of drama that gets your blood boiling, especially when impressionable young adults are involved. Jerry and Joe dress up in white suits when they speak at churches or meetings, yet live in filth and disarray in a home with a final notice sticker on their door. Any video you pick to watch online about a sovereign citizen individual represents characters in “Sovereign.” Camouflage wardrobe, long beards, unkempt appearance, missing teeth, etc. We watch in bated breath as Joe begs his father to pay the property taxes, get the driver’s license and allow him to go to public school.
Jerry and Joe are on a collision course with Detective John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) and State Highway Patrol Officer Adam Bouchart (Thomas Mann). “Sovereign” moves at a skilled pace, keeping us invested in the impending downfall. What it lacks is more background on how Jerry became the person we are watching. Swegal’s debut as a director is a good one, highly memorable and debatable, but more nuance and experience might have elevated “Sovereign” to a wider audience. This could even have worked as a mini-series to explore more depth and contrast with the Kane and Bouchart families, based on real people. Still, it’s an engrossing film that remains with you long after the last bullet is fired.
Final Thought
Swegal’s film debut is a thrilling exposition on the Sovereign Citizen extremists with Offerman and Tremblay delivering remarkably devastating performances.